Quest Summary:
After many weeks of constant cold weather with looming, ominous iron-grey clouds overhead, the party was called upon by a delegation from several local villages around Avalon City to find their children, who had gone missing. They were mostly between the ages of 8-12, and all had vanished after going down to the river to fetch water. The party investigated, and eventually discovered that something had come out of the water - a machine! - and had grabbed the children and carried them off into the river, without killing them. After further exploration, they discovered that the kidnapping machine had gone north, towards the hills. Following the trail, they discovered a valley hidden between the northern hills with a small castle in it, surrounded by a garden, surrounded by high walls. There was a fountain out front with faces that spoke to the party, explaining that this was the home of Doctor Shivian, and warned them of the dangers inside. The party then had to make their way through the challenges of the garden and other dangerous terrain - a path filled with spiked, venomous vines (that they set on fire), and a massive lake of bubbling tar (which they hopped over on little stones, taking damage from the deadly fumes in the process) - before they could face Shivian herself - only to find that she had been turning the children into strange, froglike things with twisted magic-science, draining their free will for her personal use in alchemy! The party faced her and her automatons in battle, and eventually overcame the cold-using mad scientist. Then they blew up her castle in a ginormous explosion, after Raydair sabotaged her many twisted mad scientist machines.

As a footnote, as the party was picking through the wreckage, they would discover that most of the machinery had stamps on it from a certain company: the Wheelwrights, a noted manufacturer of machinery based in Avalon City. Probably just a coincidence…